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Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Learn the Islam that Apologists will not Tell YOU About

You do realize it is important to teach religion as history in public schools. It is important because the culture we live in today is largely the result of Greek, Roman and Judeo-Christian culture. People should know the roots of their culture to understand the present.

Since 9/11 the American education system has been drawn to add more information in text books for grade levels six through twelve. That is understandable because prior to 9/11 Americans thought of Muslims more as Arabs. And Arabs were thought of as camel jockeys stuck in medieval mode in a modern age.

The image is not exactly a complimentary one in the description of Muslims. The 9/11 attack perpetrated on American soil did little to brush up that image with the American mind. The majority of the Muslim terrorists that hijacked jets were of Saudi Arabian origin and all were at least Middle Eastern.

The fact that the terrorists were from a nation in which Radical Islam is the State Religion of the land is important to know. The Saudi kingdom is dominated by Wahhabism. The purist Islam of the Wahhabis is derived from a Sunni Muslim Cleric that lived in the 18th century. The founder of Wahhabism is Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (c. 1702–c. 1791).

The 9/11 terrorists were influenced by the Wahhabism of Saudi Arabia (the bin Laden al Qaeda origin); the Wahhabis are not the only Caliphate minded Radical Islamic (i.e. purist Islam) groups around. There are others. I will not pretend to make an exhaustive list here but here are a few other Radical Muslim groups:

Jihadi ideology is based today on what is commonly known as Salafism, an ambiguous concept that has served to designate various and very different movements throughout the years. The term is derived from the word Salaf, which means �to precede.� In Islamic vocabulary, it is used to describe the followers of al Salaf al salih, the virtuous fathers of the faith who were the companions of the Prophet. The group includes the first three generations of Muslims.[1] Since they learned Islam directly from the Prophet, they understood the true meaning of the religion. Salafis aim to eradicate the impurities introduced during centuries of religious practice. Interpretations not based on the original sources of the religion are viewed as distortions that lead Muslims to stray from the path of God. Salafis have constructed a method (manhaj) to help the search for religious truth. It is a methodology for determining the correct interpretation of the religion, based on the Koran, the Sunna, and the example of the first Muslims.

The method is based on a series of core concepts, foremost among them the tawhid or belief in the uniqueness of God.[2] Another essential concept in Salafi ideology is bid'a or any innovation in the faith. Salafis argue that since the Koran and Sunna reveal the true nature of Islam, any innovation is a distortion of the path to God and is therefore to be rejected.[3] Salafis also devote considerable attention to the science of the hadiths, and call themselves the �People of the Hadith� (Ahl al-Hadith).�In their opinion, the hadiths are, according to the Koran, the most important source of religious knowledge and guidance, providing the best example of how Islam was practiced when it was first introduced. Hence, many Salafi scholars devote themselves to the science of the hadiths in order to eliminate those that are false and thus be able to propose an exact version of the tradition of the Prophet. Lastly, Salafis consider the division of Muslims into separate schools to be unacceptable, because there can only be one correct interpretation or opinion. One of the main problems the Muslim community is experiencing is precisely this blind adherence or imitation (taqlid) of a particular school. Salafis insist, therefore, that the truth is to be found in the sources, not in the texts written by jurists.

Salafism is thus a path and a method to search for religious truth, a desire to practice Islam exactly as it was revealed by the Prophet. The Salafi mission is grounded on avoidance of bid'a and shirk, strict adherence to the principle of tawhid and a desire to transcend the differences between the various schools, as well as the quest for religious truth in the original sources of Islam.[4]

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… The most radical Salafis base their interpretation of jihad on the writings of Ibn Taymiyya [10] and, like him, they consider that actions by governments that are contrary to Islamic law can be considered proof in order to declare them non-believers. The takfir thus became an instrument that could be used to oppose any regime whatsoever through armed struggle.

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In tandem with the evolution of Salafism, jihadi ideology gradually gained ground in Afghanistan and eventually merged with Salafism. Its chief proponent was Abdallah Azzam, who in 1984, founded the Maktab al-Khidamat (MAK), an office for recruiting Arabs to fight against the Soviets in Afghanistan. Azzam was to have a decisive influence on Usama bin Ladin. In his work, The Main Obligation of Muslims is to Defend the Land of Islam, Azzam writes that jihad is a moral obligation for all Muslims, the sixth pillar of the faith. Using an epic and mystic language, he sets out a vision of the world based on strict Salafism and on calls to martyrdom, stressing the permanent state of humiliation suffered by the umma, as a result of the actions of �crusaders and Zionists.� His work was to have a decisive influence on the jihadi radicalism of the 1990s.[12]

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The global proliferation of fighting Salafism and its fusion with jihadi ideology were further consolidated under bin Ladin. His declaration of war on the West-backed by the creation in 1998 of the World Islamic Front for Jihad against Jews and Crusaderscaused groups that had originally been set up to provide logistical support to al-Qa'ida (e.g. the Islamic Group of Moroccan Combatants) and had originally sought to purify and punish society, to now set their sights on the West. The struggle was no longer confined to the nearest enemy but also to those further away. Fighting Salafism assumed the role of globalizing the jihad born out of the Afghan experience and became the core ideology of the new radical Islamism.

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Salafism is first and foremost a method for the search of the religious truth; a desire to practice Islam exactly as it was revealed by the Prophet. It is a religious method whose influence has spread throughout the Arab world and also in Europe, thanks to the support received from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, which have helped expand this peculiar vision of Islam that is very close to Wahhabism. Its influence is on the rise and it has successfully impregnated several Islamist movements, including some sectors of the Muslim Brotherhoods. …

The fighting version of Salafism has also become the core ideology of the global jihadism sponsored by al-Qa’ida and the radical utopia of Abdallah Azzam. This ideology, aided by the proselytizing work of radical clerics, has led to the emergence in Europe of small groups with the capability to carry out independent terrorist strikes. … [Excerpted from a very long essay – Read Details in Entirety. I am guessing the question marks is grammar my browser did not pick-up correctly]

Despite the continuity of Islamic rule for centuries in larger parts of the sub-continent, the Muslim community in India was sharply divided into two exclusive segments namely those who were the descendents of Arab, Turk, Iranian and Afghan conquerors known as Ashraf (Noble Muslims) and those neo-convert Indians who were known as Ajlafs (Low category Muslims). Since the priestly class of this society mostly remained aligned with Ashrafs, orthodox Islam did not penetrate deep into the daily lives of the Muslim proletariat (Ajlafs) who maintained continuous emotional link with their Hindu past and were even practicing their pre-Islamic customs and celebrations. Therefore, Waliullah’s movement was meant for purifying the Ajlafs. It is said that Waliullah era was the beginning of Muslim renaissance following the decline of Islamic rule.

After the death of Waliullah in 1762 , his son Abdul Aziz (1746-1822) succeeded him in the theological saddle of Delhi and carried forward the ideological heritage of his father’s movement. Since the Marathas were already on retreat after their defeat by Abdali in the third battle of Panipat in 1761 and the British were marching towards Delhi, he converted the movement launched by his father into Jihad against the British after declaring India as Darul Harb (House of war). When the British army marched to Delhi in 1803 and Mogul emperor became a British vassal, he also issued a fatwa appealing to the Muslims for launching Jihad against the British and for restoring the rule of Islamic glory. Finding his disciple one Syed Ahmad Barelvi who was born in November 1786 in Rai Bareilley in the present Uttar Pradesh and belonged to the family distantly related to his family suitable for leading the Jihad, … Later he sent Ahmad Barelvi to Mecca in order to acquire the ideological knowledge of Islam from the Wahhabi clerics of Arabia. During course of his stay in Arabia he was greatly influenced with the spirit of Wahhabism and returned to India sometime in the early years of 1820s.

On his return from Mecca, Ahmad Barelvi also known as founder of Wahhabi movement in India, founded an organization namely Tariqah-i Muhhamdiyah (The Way of the Prophet Muhammad) and designated himself as Amir al Mumin (Commander of the Believers). Fully inspired with Waliullah’s political thought for converting the Ajlafs into true Islamists, he toured the length and breadh (sic) of the country particularly Bihar, Bengal, Punjab and Kashmir and found that the Ajlafs were still following Islam within their pre-Islamic cultural mindset like visiting even the Hindu mystics, also following their recommendations for overcoming their worldly problems, having no inhibition in wearing their pre-Islamic dresses. They constituted the larger majority of Muslim society and were therefore the main target area of Barelvi for their brainwashing and turning them into full-fledged Muslims.

Syed Ahmed Shaheed Brelvi started a great movement in the North of India; this movement is known as “The Mujahideen Movement” or “The Movement o Jihad”. This movement arranged a power for the struggle of freedom in Muslims which produced a spirit of survival and they started freedom struggle.

Background of the Mujahideen Movement

Syed Ahmed Shaheed Brelvi selected a particular way on the command of his spiritual guide Shah Abdul Aziz and devoted himself in the preparation of the holy war. He started a national movement for this purpose in 1818 and organized this movement after [h]is arrival from Hajj as the Mujahideen Movement in 1831.

Objectives of Mujahideen Movement

He wanted to make the Muslims as the true lover of Islam, for this purpose he started the Mujahideen Movement.

The main objectives of the Mujahideen Movement were following;

·To preach unicity of Almighty Allah.

·To revive the teachings of Islam and prepare the Muslims to pass their lives simply according to the teachings of Islam.

·To protect the Muslims against such acts and ideas which are contrary to Islamic values.

·To protect the Muslims from the worship of other things except Allah.

·To preach Jihad because it was not possible to get freedom from evil force without armed struggle.

Syed Ahmed Shaheed Brelvi wanted to eliminate the domination of Sikhs in Punjab and N.W.F.P to revive Islamic values and traditions.

Deobandis and Barelvis are the two major groups of Muslims in the Subcontinent apart from the Shia. Barelvi Hanafis deem Deobandis to be kaafir. Those hostile to the Barelvis deprecated them as the shrine-worshipping, the grave-worshiping, ignorant Barelvis. …

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The differences between these sects can be difficult to understand. For the Barelvis, (who are mostly from the Pakistan province of Punjab) the holy Prophet is a superhuman figure whose presence is all around us at all times; he is hazir, present; he is not bashar, material or flesh, but nur, light. The Deobandis, who also revere the Prophet, argue he was the insan-i-kamil, the perfect person, but still only a man, a mortal. Barelvis emphasise a love of Muhammad, a semi-divine figure with unique foreknowledge. The Deobandis reject this idea of Muhammad, emphasising Islam as a personal rather than a social religion.

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… The Wahhabi (Arabia), Deobandi (Pakistan and India) and Jamaat-I-Islami all are anti-sufi, and against the over devotion to Muhammad, whereas the Barelvis emphasize Muhammad's uniqueness. Indeed, nearly 85% of South Asia's Sunni Muslims are said to follow the Barelvi school, closer to Sufism. The remaining 15% of Sunnis follow the Deobandi school, more closely related to the conservative practice of Islam. Most Shiites in the subcontinent also tend to be influenced by the Sufis. Pakistan's Muslims, like other Muslims in the region, tend to follow a school of Islam which is less conservative, and hence the support for strongly and overtly religious parties has been minimal.

As Punjab governor Salman Taseer came out of a restaurant in an upscale area of Islamabad, one of his bodyguards uttered the slogan “Allahu Akbar” and fired on the man he was supposed to guard, killing him on the spot. The assassin in the January 4 killing, Malik Mumtaz Qadri, belonged to the Elite Punjab Police, a force specially trained in counterterrorism work and the protection of important individuals (Dawn [Karachi], January 5). Qadri was also believed to be associated with the South Asian Barelvi Sufi movement. The other bodyguards from the elite force did not try to stop him and the smiling Qadri surrendered to his fellow officers after he made sure the governor was dead. He later told the police that he had killed the governor because Taseer had insulted the Prophet of Islam by describing Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws as “black laws.” …

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… the killer belonged to the Dawat-e-Islami, a Barelvi Sufi group which normally shuns violence and has been in the forefront of the struggle against Deobandism (a conservative Sunni religious movement that has become associated with militancy) and the Ahle Hadith jihadi groups. Founded in 1984 as a small group around Pir (spiritual leader) Mohammad Ilyas Attar Qadri, Dawat-e-Islami grew into a formidable organization by the mid-1990s when more than 100,000 persons gathered at its periodic ijtimahs (conventions). [1] Pir Ilyas Attar Qadri had sensed Deobandi extremism would grow as a result of the Afghan jihad and wanted to organize the Ahle Sunnat to face that challenge. However, Pir Ilyas believed in peaceful resistance. [2] Surprisingly, the Dawat-e-Islami is loosely structured on the model of the Deobandi Tablighi Jamaat (an international Islamic reform movement). …

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Formation of the Sunni Tehrik

Pir Ilyas Qadri’s reluctance to adopt violence against Deobandi jihadi groups led to a mini-rebellion among his followers, particularly those who had studied at Barelvi madrassahs. Consequently, a small group led by Saleem Qadri founded the Sunni Tehrik in 1990. Saleem Qadri wanted to meet Deobandi violence with more violence, as Pir Ilyas Qadri’s “non-violence was not taking the Barelvis anywhere.” [4] However, Saleem Qadri did not break his religious allegiance to Pir Ilyas Qadri even after leaving his group, nor did he ask his followers to break links with the Dawat-e-Islami. This approach worked and soon the ranks of the Sunni Tehrik swelled. The membership of the Dawat-e-Islami and the Sunni Tehrik also overlaps at the lower levels with several other Barelvi groups.

The Sunni Tehrik was the first Barelvi group to articulate the demands of the majority Barelvi sect and to use violence to achieve them. Their four basic demands were:

• The protection of Ahle Sunnat beliefs.

• The protection of the rights of the Ahle Sunnat.

• The protection of Ahle Sunnat mosques.

• The protection of the Ahle Sunnat awqaf (religious endowments), such as shrines. [5]

The Sunni Tehrik was ready to use violence to achieve the last two demands in response to Deobandi groups’ use of violence to take over Barelvi mosques and awqaf property. …

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… the most important thing was that the Jamaat Ahle Sunnat had adopted the Sunni Tehrik narrative of a forceful defense of Barelvi interests as its own. The Jamaat Ahle Sunnat emerged much stronger after the convention and began to play a major part in the country’s Islamist politics.

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The assassination of Governor Salman Taseer shows that Sufi Islamism can be a bulwark against or an alternative to Deobandi and Ahle Hadith jihadism but it is in its own way as great a threat to international security as the militancy of the Deobandi and Ahle Hadith movements. [Read in Entirety]

Deobandi

Deobandi Islam: The Religion of the Taliban

Information provided and used with permission from the Defense Language Institute at:wrc.lingnet.org (Google goes HERE for the link)

From its inception the school at Deoband made a sharp distinction between ‘revealed’ or sacred knowledge, and ‘human’ or secular knowledge. The school excluded all learning that was not obviously Islamic by firmly rejecting other religious traditions (the Hinduism of India and the Christianity of the British missionaries) and forbidding Western-style education and the study of any subjects not directly related to the study of the Quran.

The school was also highly critical of Islam as it was practiced in the modern world, especially India. They felt the established religious order had made too many compromises with its foreign environment and therefore Islam needed to be purified of these foreign elements. To live out the pure Islamic tradition they embraced Taqlid (acceptance of the old interpretations) and rejected ijitehad or reinterpretation of Islamic precepts to accommodate the changing times. It should also be noted that they are strict adherents to the Hanafi school of thought.xii

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… In the late 19th and early 20th century the Deobandi school was embroiled, and to a great extent preoccupied, in a verbal “fatwa war” with the Bid’ati school. With more than a quarter of a million fatwas (legal opinions) being issued on some of the most ordinary issues of daily life, the fatwa war helped the Deobandi scholars clarify their thinking. It also served to harden their deeply conservative theological and ethical positions. As a result of the fatwa war the Dar-ul-Uloom madressa became much more traditional than it was when first established in 1866. That is, it moved much further to the right than the founding fathers would have ever imagined.

As the school grew in years it also grew in size and prestige. xiii Dar-ul-Uloon became ‘the’ place to prepare young men to become educated in the Islamic tradition. …

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Indian independence from British rule in 1947 was met with a bloody partitioning of the subcontinent into two independent nations…India and Pakistan. …

Dar-ul-Uloon however, had a strong history as a hotbed for anti-British activities that were fueled by its conservative, uncompromising theological stance. After the creation of the nation of Pakistan in 1947 numerous satellite Deobandi madressas sprung up throughout Pakistan. These madressas carried on not only the strict Deobandi theological tradition but also its political activism, only now the target had changed. It was no longer the English but the Indian oppression of Muslims in the disputed area of Kashmir that inspired resentment. Later, with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 this resentment would expand to include communism. After the Soviets left the U.N. and the U.S. became demonized as the foreign invading and corrupting powers that threatened the pure expression of Islam.

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In the spring of 1994 two teenage girls from the village of Sang Hesar were abducted by the majahedim and repeatedly raped at the local checkpoint. Mohammed Omar, a retired Afghan commander studying at a local madressa, gathered 30 fellow taliban (students) and mounted a successful rescue. The Majahedim commander was hung from a slowly ascending tank-barrel. This was the birth of a movement that came to be known as the Taliban.

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The majahedim were Islamists who carried the banner of Islam and combated secularism and then communism in Afghanistan. Islamists are modernists who seek a contemporary political interpretation of Islam. Educationally they tilt towards Al-Azhor University in Egypt where they have been strongly influence by the political orientation of the fundamentalist group the Muslim Brotherhood. Because they drew from this model other governments were quick to recognize their authority and they were able to form highly organized political parties.

The Taliban are traditionalists who have only entered the political stream in Afghanistan since 1994. They view the roll (sic) of government and society very differently from the majahedim. They do not see Islam in political terms but in religious terms. They seek to return to the purity of the teachings of the Quran and the Sunnah (the practices of the Prophet). They are products of religious madrassas in Pakistan whose roots go back to the Dar-ul-Uloon seminary in Debond, India. Their history makes the Taliban inclined to organize themselves around regional associations rather than political parties.

Religious edicts are believed to have a divine source so they carry more authority in this society than humanitarian law that stress individual freedoms. The purpose of government is to be a reflection of the divine will (as interpreted by the Deobondi scholars), not a guardian of individual rights and liberties as insisted upon by the West. [Read PDF in Entirety]

So what the heck, John? Why are you rehashing these theo-political strains of Radical Islam?

Well feel lucky, I was going to examine some of the organization – I mean – terrorists that adhere to these Radical Islamic ideologies. You know like the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, Hezbollah, CAIR, Jamaat ul-Fuqra and so on.

The point of this exercise is that American text books are leaving this kind of information out. Since these organizations look back to purist Islam. It is important to tell American students that the Islam that inspires these Islamic terrorists and Radical Muslims is the Islam of Mohammed and the following so-called Rightly Guided Caliphs (i.e. First four Caliphs that were actual buddies with Mo).

ACT for America has put together an analysis of text books in America from sixth grade through twelfth grade. Here is the ACT email:

Textbook analysis report released today!

A special message from Brigitte Gabriel, President, ACT! for America Education

It is with great delight that I announce to you that today we released “Education or Indoctrination? The Treatment of Islam in 6th through 12th Grade American Textbooks.”

ACT! for America Education Executive Director Guy Rodgers and I began discussing this project nearly four years ago. Today, that project is a reality—and I believe that one year from now you and I will look back on this as a truly historic accomplishment that helped change the course of education in America.

This report shines a bright light on a pattern of errors, omissions and bias in the textbooks reviewed. Our children deserve better. Our children deserve facts and accuracy, not historical revisionism.

To give you just one example of the errors our research uncovered, in discussing the 9/11 attacks, the textbooks typically fail to mention the perpetrators were Muslims or that they acted in the cause of Islamic jihad. In one book the terrorists are portrayed as people fighting for a cause. In just a few years after September 11th, the history of what happened on that tragic day was rewritten in our school textbooks. Omitting this vital information, that jihad was the motivation for the attacks, makes it difficult, if not impossible, for today’s young teens, who don’t remember 9/11, to really understand what happened that day—and why.

Please forward this email to anyone and everyone you know. Help us get the word out far and wide! Over the next few months we hope to wake up America to what this report has uncovered!

·The Executive Summary of the Report, which was mailed to over 70,000 state and local school board members nationwide;

·The full Report;

·Sub-reports, sorted by each textbook publisher;

·A plan for taking action.

The few have always made a difference in this crazy, dangerous but wonderful world we live in. This is our time, those of us who “get it” and are concerned about the direction of our future, to come together and work together to make a difference for our country and our future generation.

I am honored to put my hand in yours and work with you to ensure our children receive the best historical education, and America remains the greatest and brightest nation on earth.

Brigitte Gabriel

Now here is the link to the Executive Summary to this analysis in which you can also access the full report:

I grew up in Lebanon when Islamic militants, in league with Palestinian followers of Yasser Arafat, tore our beautiful country apart.

As a result, from age 10 to 17 I lived in a bomb shelter beneath my family’s bombed out home.

I know what Islamic terror is. I have lived through it. And after 9/11, I made a promise to myself that I would do whatever I could to ensure that radical Islam and the terror it produces would not do to my adopted country, America, what it did to my country of birth.

This is why I founded ACT! for America Education (formerly known as American Congress for Truth) in 2002.

It didn’t take me long to realize that America is not only threatened by radical Islam, Islamic terror, and “cultural Jihad.” We are also threatened by a festering political correctness that is unwilling or unable to identify and define the threat we face.

If we don't win the war against Islamofascism other issues won't matter at all.

·We won't have an economy to worry about.

·We won't have equal rights for all.

·We won't have our cherished freedom.

·And we will live under Shariah Law.

Lest you be tempted to think this is an exaggeration, consider this.

There are dozens of terrorist sleeper cells in cities throughout America.

Hundreds of mosques and madrassas (Islamic schools) in America house materials that call for Jihad against non-Muslims and the overthrow of America’s constitutional system of government, to be replaced by Islamic Shariah law.

Numerous cities in Great Britain have officially recognized Shariah law and Shariah courts, creating a dangerous precedent for other Western democracies. In fact, there is at least one instance in America where a court referred a dispute between Muslims to an “Islamic court.”

Shariah-compliant financial products are now offered by numerous American financial institutions.

Over two dozen Islamic charities have been identified by our government as having ties to terrorists and terrorist organizations. In late 2008, leaders of the Holy Land Foundation, and American Islamic charity, were found guilty on 108 counts related to funneling contributions to terrorists.

Americans – and freedom-loving people everywhere -- must awaken to the threat of radical Islam, which may well be the greatest existential threat to safety and liberty of the 21st century. Jihad has been declared on Christians, Jews, non-Muslims and secularists worldwide by Islamic radicals...simply because we are infidels according to their belief.

This “jihad” can take on many forms – from violent terrorism to societal subversion through the vehicle of “cultural jihad.”

As America stood up against and defeated Nazism and Communism -- now is the time to stand up and stare down the evil of religious hatred, bigotry and intolerance.

This begins with knowledge. As you become informed, find out how you can take action by visiting the website of ACT! for America, www.actforamerica.org.

Together we can save our country and our freedom. Together we can fight for the values of Western Civilization that have produced opportunity, prosperity, peace and liberty wherever those values are practiced. You are the heroes who make our work possible.

I especially thank you for helping me protect the country that has blessed me so much --America, the dream that became my address.

The mission of ACT! for America Education, formerly known as American Congress for Truth is to be the definitive source of education, information and research about the multiple threats posed to America’s national security and democratic values by radical Islam, in order to awaken and empower freedom-loving people everywhere to effectively combat these threats.READ THE ENTIRE MISSION

Thank you for investing in the mission of ACT! for America Education. Your tax-deductible contributionwill help us continue our mission of providing quality research, information and education about the multiple threats posed to us by radical Islam. Together, for the sake of our families, communities, nation, and freedom-loving people everywhere, we will prevail.